


friends 'til we die

by icetowns



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friends to Lovers, more characters later maybe idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29970747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icetowns/pseuds/icetowns
Summary: When Princess Eleanor of Ivora finds herself struggling as her parents try to make her marry a prince, she finds her old friend Prince Chidi of Solia, whom she was forbidden to see because of problems between their kingdoms.
Relationships: Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	friends 'til we die

Eleanor walked down the gravel roads right outside of the small town near the castle, disguised by a cloak so that no one would recognize her as the princess. She decided that she was going down to a meadow near the forest where she could relax and get away from the troubles of her parents trying to find her a suitor. Of course she was tired of her parents shoving all of these men in her face that they wanted her to marry; who wouldn’t be? She wasn’t interested in any princes that they were showing her at all.

She would come to this meadow all the time as a kid and play with her friend. It was always peaceful, and of course the flowers were gorgeous. It was just in general a nice place to be. Eleanor felt safe there, so she took off the cloak and used it to sit in the field. She looked down at her dress; it was really pretty and the same color as the lavender beside her, but she found herself getting tired of it. Eleanor really enjoyed being a princess as a kid, but then again, what kid doesn’t want to call themself a princess? The magic stopped when she turned eighteen and the pressure was on to prepare to take over the throne later in life. All of a sudden, life was all about finding a prince to then become king with her whenever she was to become queen.

Suddenly, she heard a horse trotting behind her. Her head turned, and to her surprise, she recognized the boy on the horse despite not seeing him in over a decade.

“Eleanor?” he said in his familiar voice, proving to her that he recognized her after all of that time too.

“Chidi,” she replied, in awe of him as he got off of his horse, “what are you doing here?”

“Wow, we haven’t seen each other since we were like eight and your first question is  _ what are you doing here,” _ he smiled at her, “you haven’t changed a bit.”

“No, no, it’s just that I came here because I was stressed and I didn’t expect to see anyone, especially you.”

“I was actually hoping to run into you here,” he replied, sitting down beside her, “that’s why I came all this way. Even then it’s not like Ivora is that far from Solia, it’s probably twenty or so minutes if my horse runs its fastest.”

“Why were you hoping to run into me?”

“You know, Eleanor, you ask more questions than I remember,” he smirked.

“I’ve asked like two, man.”

“Okay, well, today is my birthday,” Chidi sighed, “my nineteenth birthday. So my parents have been trying to get me to marry someone for a year now. Honestly, it’s getting tiring, I have multiple stomach aches about this like every day now, and I just wished that I could see my best friend.”

Eleanor smiled. “It’s sad that you’re still my best friend.”

“Yeah, it’s really sad, but I don’t think I could do better than you,” he joked.

“No, seriously,” Eleanor told him, “we really didn’t move on like our parents did at all.”

“They didn’t swear to be friends ‘til they died like we did, did they, Eleanor?” he said, looking at the forest.

The memory suddenly came flooding back to her. A little, seven year old Chidi stealing a dagger from one of Solia’s, his kingdom’s, royal guards, and Eleanor thinking that it was so out of character for him to have a weapon, only to have him lead her to a tree to have them carve something into it together.

“Do you think it’s still there?” She asked, looking at the forest too.

“There’s only one way to find out!” Chidi exclaimed, getting up from where he was sitting and holding out his hand to help her up. Eleanor smiled at him and took his hand, getting up from where she was sitting and letting her hand linger in his for a moment before letting go. 

They walked together towards a tree right on the edge of the forest and the meadow, with flowers growing at its base, and, after almost twelve years, there it was.

_ E + C _

Eleanor ran her fingertips over the carving and she exhaled, shifting her gaze from the tree trunk towards Chidi. “I’m going through the same thing too. My parents keep trying to shove all of these princes down my throat.”

“I’m sorry, Eleanor,” he really sympathized with her, “I know that’s very hard.”

“It’s fine, it’s just infuriating,” she smiled softly then half-joked, “they don’t even have the decency to show me a princess or two.”

“That makes it extremely difficult then,” he chuckled as they started to walk away from the tree, “for some reason I remember there being more written there.”

“We were only kids, Chidi,” Eleanor replied in a snide tone, “did you think we wrote a novel on that tree?”

“I think I wanted to,” he said, looking down at the ground.

Eleanor looked at him as he kicked a small rock while walking, trying to process what was going on in their entire interaction. Everything Chidi was saying and doing felt loaded, even down to his body language. 

She took a breath in and decided to try to ask him what was going on. “Chidi, you keep saying things and doing things as if you were--”

“It’s sunset, shouldn’t you be heading back now? Michael’s probably worried sick.”

“You remember Michael?”

“Yes, Eleanor, I remember a lot about you,” Chidi sighed, “seriously though, you have to go back home now. I don’t want the whole kingdom of Ivora thinking something bad happened to their princess. I should go too, I don’t want my parents to get suspicious of me. I only said I was going to ride my horse around for a moment for some fresh air.”

“Oh,” Eleanor was disappointed that her time with Chidi was cut short, but he was right, they absolutely could not stay for long.

He hopped onto his horse, taking Eleanor aback with how good he looked atop his steed. “Goodbye, Eleanor.”

“Bye, Chidi,” she replied, and he took off.

She watched as his horse created a cloud of dust behind him. She really didn’t want him to have to leave, especially not knowing how long it would be before they saw each other again.

“Eleanor!” she heard him yell out from the distance, “tomorrow at dawn, meet me by the tree!”

Her face lit up, and because he couldn’t see her she cheered to herself. Chidi was finally coming back to her, and she hoped he would be able to stay this time around.

**Author's Note:**

> ahhh i haven't written anything like this in a long time so i hope you like it!! especially jules and em, two of my besties that i'm writing this for <3


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